Reviews of the week

The new album Our Daily Bread by Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry is praised by UK and German media

Lovano, multifaceted improv/contemporary-classical pianist Marilyn Crispell and subtle percussionist Carmen Castaldi, have been exploring a rich landscape of tone rows, ballad and blues phrasing since the trio’s launch in 2018 – but their familiarity with each other goes back a lot further than that. Our ‘DailyBread’ takes the process enchantingly on.

John Fordham, Jazzwise (Editor’s choice)

Es ist die Konzentration auf die nur scheinbar flüchtige Geste, die dieser Musik ihre Fluidität und unangestrengte Eleganz verleiht. Dabei laden sich die mehrheitlich balladesk angelegten Stücke oft unmerklich mit einer großen Strahlkraft auf. Ein Album wie ein klingender Gedichtzyklus, mit Musik voll lyrischer Verdichtung und poetischer Ambivalenz.

Reinhold Unger, Münchner Merkur

UK and French reviewers on the  album Eventually by the Jacob Young Trio

It was surprising to learn that this is Jacob Young’s first trio recording with a classic line up of guitar, bass and drums but he sets the record straight with this lovely album. He also offers up nine new compositions that possess all the hallmarks of his writing for a small group that have been heard on his previous ECM albums, yet in this more open and sparse setting that lose none of their vitality and delicate feeling of intricacy. Without the use of frontline horns to colour the ensemble Young’s compositions have a new feeling of directness. […] The music exudes a feeling of liberation for the guitarist and indeed the trio as a collective. Young is able to colour his own solos with a chordal accompaniment when he sees fit to do so, although more frequently space is the order of the day. […] This is the guitarist’s fourth album for ECM, and each has revealed not just continuous development but a different side to Young’s playing. Over the course of his career to date, Young has played in many different bands and contexts in addition to leading his own groups. With ‘Eventually’ it appears that the guitarist is now distilling all he has learned into a leaner and more compact setting and placing himself at the heart of the music in a new and ultimately satisfying way.

Nick Lea, Jazz Views

A ces neuf originaux,qui témoignent d’un délicat équilibre entre écriture et improvisations, le trio donne une unite stylistique au-delà des contrastes, et témoigne, par la fluidité des échanges de rôles entre accompagnateurs et improvisateurs, d’une cohesion comme on en entend peu. Voilà un disque qui sans révolutionner le genre, est une vraie réussite et sa réécoutera.

Ismaël Siméon, Jazz Magazine

UK, Belgian and German reactions to the album Vagabond by Dominic Miller

There are no singers on ’Vagabond’, but there’s nonetheless a strong storytelling  element to the compositions and performances, as well as a strongly poetic component – perhaps unsurprisingly since the album was named for a John Masefield poem of the same name loved by Miller’s late father.

Robert Shore, Jazzwise

Huit ’chansons’, toutes plus poétiques les unes que les autres, toutes composes par Miller. Le quartet a le truc pour équilibrer les grooves profonds et le tissage subtil des couleurs pastel et des harmonies délicates. Un bel album, une musique à méditer.

Jean-Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir

Dies ist ein ruhiges, intimes und reduziertes Miller-Album, voll mit impressionistischer Instrumentalmusik, hingetupft wie ein pointillistisches Meisterwerk […] Die vier Musikanten, die hier in zartem, aber intensivem Interplay aufspielen, sind allesamt Meister ihres Fachs. […] Interessant ist zudem, wie gut sich Millers Gitarre(n) mit dem Klavier mischen und ergänzen, denn Akustikgitarre plus Piano/Keyboards funktioniert längst nicht in jeder Konstellation. In Summe ein ruhiges Slow- und Midtempo-Album, für das man innerlich bereit sein muss. Dann aber macht es Spaß, und es sorgt für tiefempfundenen Hörgenuss.

Andreas Schulz, Akustikgitarre

US and German reactions to the new guitar solo album El ultimo aliento by Zsófia Boros

It is impressive that guitarist Boros shapes the pieces into a coherent whole. The overall mood is reflective, quietly lively, suggestive of improvisation, but within her framework, Boros adds numerous shades. […] Boros is a wonder, but even more spectacular is the engineering from ECM, an absolutely exemplary demonstration of how to record a solo guitar. The listener is put into a profoundly intimate space, but that space is not invaded by extraneous noises. This adds up to an absorbing 40 minutes of music […] An unusually fresh and fully realized release.

James Manheim, All Music

Alle eingespielten Duplessy-Werke bestechen mit feinen Melodien, hauchzarten Harmonien und pastellartig leuchtenden Texturen. Die arbeitet die Interpretin mit differenzerter Tonkultur und polierter Technik kongenial heraus, weswegen allein dieser Programmteil eine Anschaffung des erwartungsgemäß exzellent produzierten Albums  empfehlenswert macht. Doch auch das argentinische Idiom spricht die Musikerin gewandt, überzeugt mit Ginasteras ’Milonga’ ebenso wie mit Joaquin Alems expressivem ’Salir ardentro’ oder dem zauberhaften Titelstück aus der Feder von Carlos Moscardini. […] Ein sehr feines Album, perfekt für die meditativen Momente.

Harald Wittig, Akustikgitarre

A UK reviewer on the Prism series by the Danish String Quartet

The juxtapositions on each album are highly rewarding. Equally important is the fact that the programming allows for the discovery of quartets less well-known than the Beethoven pieces; to me, for instance, the Schnittke and Webern compositions were completely new, and I’m very glad to have made their acquaintance. Rest assured, all the pieces that accompany the Bach and Beethoven are well worth listening to repeatedly in their own right.  And then, of course, there are the performances. […] the three Danes met as children at summer camp, while the Norwegian cellist joined the quartet in 2008 – and it shows in the precision and empathy of their interactions. Their playing is wonderfully transparent and nuanced throughout (well served, of course, by the clarity and resonance of ECM’s production), ranging from pure power to exquisite delicacy, strident dissonance to elegant lyricism as the music requires; it is refined, intelligent, balanced, unflashy, meticulous – but never remotely dry. There is beauty in abundance. In short, this is marvellous music marvellously performed. A review of Prism V in the New York Times claimed, ‘these releases must qualify as some of the most essential listening of the past decade.’ I am tempted to agree.

Geoff Andrew, Notes & Observations